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Timeless Wisdom and Intrigue from Nine Books of 2012

Each year I offer a list of books that altered my worldview. Some hit bookshelves in 2012, others kept their distance for years before landing in my lap. Some are bestsellers, most are from the cemetery of neglected brilliance. My hope is that you find something here so when we meet, a mystical landscape will unite us before the first sip of bourbon. You'll find a bit of persuasion and amazon links to impulsively buy one and refine those neuroconnections.

1. Shantaram. On a flight to Vancouver, the floppy blond-haired surfer next to me was holding this 900-plus page paperback. I asked him if it was worth the investment and he gushed, "only if you cherish storytelling and epiphanies." Some things only appear in the shadows and this is a story of how to live exceptionally in a world where darkness oscillates with light. Expect your entire life to be put on hold as soon as you reach page 20. I'll know you're reading this if you wear the same shirt to the gym for three straight weeks.

3. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. Sudhir is now an intellectual hero of mine. A graduate student in sociology is embarrassed that his fellow sociologists hand out surveys and write books about inner city life from the safety of carefully manicured acres of weeping Pagoda trees. If you want to understand someone unlike yourself, you must gain their trust, observe them, talk to them, and let preconceived notions be shred apart. Sudhir spends months living inside a crack using, prostitute selling gang. By doing so, he gains insight into a life of violence and family that is foreign to most of us. Need some motivation to be bolder? This is it.

4. Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. Everyone tries to be different like all of the other different people. Get a tattoo, ride a harley davidson, wear tattered t-shirts or jeans. This brief treatise introduces you to the road to medicrocity that nearly every business, author, scientist, public speaker, and consultant tends to travel on. Why? Because it pays just enough to afford 1.38 kids and 2.7 weeks of vacation. Profound contributions to humanity are lost because people fear straying from the herd. In the authors' own words, "stop emulating and start innovating." This is not a book for sycophants who can't handle criticism and want to feel comfortable. This is a book for people that want to start taking real risks and do something special with the only life they have.

5. Blueprints of the Afterlife. First of two apocalyptic books. A glacier wipes out the bulk of North America and a secret organization plans to rebuild New York City in Puget Sound (a perfect geographical fit?). Citizens accept government aid and in return, take part in an organ transplant program where you are forced to gorge incessantly to accumulate bigger body parts. This science fiction novel is what emerges when you watch and re-watch Memento by Christopher Nolan, crave the untold stories by David Foster Wallace, and prefer philosophical meanderings on the meaning of life to be dressed up with world champion dishwashers, cloning, and an underground collection of childhood geniuses.

6. The Windup Girl. Second of two apocalyptic books. Travel to a futuristic Thailand, where wars are fought over precious seeds of extinct food. There is an almost love story between a man and a creature bio-engineered to be one step beyond humans on the evolutionary ladder. There are characters scarred by violence, debauchery, and scarcity. How far can we tinker with mother nature? When we play God with mother nature, what do we feel compelled to reject as unnatural? Be cautious if you happen to be predisposed to panic attacks. This is a bleak story and expect to breath in short, rapid bursts of oxygen even though you're alone on a leather reading chair. The oldest profession becomes even seedier. You will be exposed to an invented language for food and technology that only exists in the future. If you cherish authors that refuse to spoonfeed information and instead merely allow entry into another dimension, then we might have a match. Those who can tolerate a bit of discomfort will be amply rewarded.

7. A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons. Let's be clear, your life is uninteresting compared to Robert Sapolsky. This is a wonderfully written book by a funny, brilliant storyteller who loves animals and wants to protect them from corruption. By the end, you will have no doubt of our genetic connection to baboons. Learn what its like to live for 20+ years in a community of baboons. You will laugh (a lot). You will get depressed. You will feel righteous indignation. And for me, I was reminded of how many times people told me, "you work too hard, why don't you do something fun?" I can only imagine how many times Saplosky heard this trite comment. Learn about what it means to have a calling, where you can't distinguish who you are from what you do. Where work is an adventure and thus indistinguishable from play. Loathe that high school guidance counselor who convinced you to be an investment banker, physician, real estate agent, or life insurance salesperson, but failed to mention that you could be a primatologist.

Between the covers of books lie boundless ideas that await discovery. Ignore this list at your own peril. And as always, please share your own list in the comments so that I can begin the next round of explorations.

Nick, we are always on the same page. Honestly, that was going to be #10 and then I decided to avoid the even number that everyone uses. Haidt nailed it, here is my 1/15/12 amazon review:

Published at the perfect time in American politics, The Righteous Mind belongs next to other scientific gems by Pinker (The Blank Slate), Sagan (The Demon Haunted World), Wright (The Moral Animal), Ariely (Predictably Irrational), and Wilson (Strangers to Ourselves). The main thesis is morality tends to operate by initial, intuitive reactions and only then do people respond with post-hoc strategic justifications. This seemingly small idea alters dominant theory and research on moral psychology. Why should you read this particular book?

1. Haidt does not try to persuade you with a smattering of self-selected studies. He carefully walks the reader through multiple philosophical traditions and quite an impressive body of research spanning ethology, behavioral economics, neurobiology, and psychology. The descriptions of these studies are stimulating and everything is in the service of setting up a revised conceptual model of morality. I love the fact that he wants to neutralize the readers natural defenses (reflexive mental processes outside of conscious awareness). Thus, he does not offer a definition of morality until p. 274. This is one example of Haidt's careful structuring of topics, examples, and data. There appears to be a motive for every decision. Something that is far too rare in a culture where speedy presentation and publication is the norm.

2. Haidt's personal journey, involving several changes in moral beliefs, is a secondary storyline. By presenting his own biases, the reader is able to focus on the persuasiveness of his arguments. Again, this is all in the service of reducing defensive reactions in readers and I believe it works quite well.

3. There is a perfect blending of philosophy and science. Morality is difficult to study and readers will be pleased to find that the arguments do not rest on empirical data alone. When evidence is presented, Haidt carefully walks the reader through three or more distinct reasons for his position. No different than a lawyer, he adopts an open, reflective attitude toward supportive and non-supportive evidence to obtain his current worldview.

4. The book is descriptive and prescriptive. In the last two chapters, Haidt uses his knowledge of moral psychology to offer suggestions for improving public discourse on religion and politics. Its a satisfying ending to a comprehensive volume. I would offer the disclaimer that if all you want are tips on how to bridge the divide between atheist and religious individuals, and liberals and conservatives, this is probably not the book for you. This is not a self-help book. This is a book for people who are interested in how and why automatic, non-conscious mental processes play a role in politics, religion, war, and peace. This is a book for people who are interested in the latest perspectives in evolutionary theory. For instance, Haidt offers a persuasive argument for the possibility that human evolution occurs at the group level and not just at the level of genes and individuals (a multilevel approach).

The world would be a better place if people read this book. I am hoping this gets in the hands of every person in a position of power to impose their moral beliefs on others, from political advisors, pundits, and politicians to the leaders of churches, synagogues, and mosques.

The stand-out for me was his incredible dive into the conservative perspective, and the wisdom that it represents. Witnessing someone step out of their own worldview to that extent was enlightening, to say the least. I'm probably not going to vote for a conservative party anytime soon, but I now understand that there are very valid reasons for many of their views, and that I probably have many of my own views for somewhat random reasons (genetics, etc.)

I found some of the very few weak points were around his "criticism" of some liberal views. He was obviously trying to look at the morals of "his team" more critically in order to be as even-handed as possible, but fell somewhat short. For example, he equates liberals' concern with the purity of foods with conservatives' views of purity of certain objects, but there are scientifically-supported reasons for anyone to consider that highly-processed foods are "impure" (i.e., they are chemically different from more pure foods, and do real, measurable, physical harm, not just perceived social harm).